


For the Homes They Forgot

by stellacanta



Series: Crowe Week 2019 [4]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:59:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18595576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellacanta/pseuds/stellacanta
Summary: Crowe week day 4.Crowe's motivation for joining the glaives&journalism auThere was a podcast/radio show called the Frontline Report that was started by some guy out of Cavaugh. It was a small podcast with a devoted following. (It was the only podcast that talked about the war and the outer territories when most Insomnians would rather forget the war even existed.)Crowe had heard about it even before the interview with its founder and chief producer, Titus Drautos, became the talk of the school for a couple of days. (It was quickly forgotten about after that, Insomnians as a whole didn’t like thinking about the war.) She was one of those people that would listen in occasionally, just catch up on things outside the wall, or check their website for news.That was were she found a job posting for a reporter to be based in Leide. It was a good thing that just so happened to be where she was from, wasn’t it?





	For the Homes They Forgot

**Author's Note:**

> This one got out late too _ooof_  
>  Anyway this is a bit of a 'what if Drautos was never offered a deal by the imperials, but he was still angry at the king and wanted to do something about it?' :P

The office that Titus Drautos led Crowe to was spartan but cramped. There were two bookshelves shoved against one wall crammed full of books and binders of who knows what. Some of the binders had neat white labels on the side describing their contents, most did not. There was a messy stack of papers on the desk, so high it dwarfed the laptop that had clearly seen better days sitting on one corner. There was a white mug of something next to it.

Titus grabbed the mug and grimaced when he took a sip of whatever was in it. He hastily placed the mug on the table and dropped into the chair behind the desk. “So, you’re interested in the Leide position,” he said and looked at her. She stared back, implacable. 

It was a good thing she had gone for business casual, a neat green blouse tucked into her nicest jeans, here. She would have felt overdressed if she had worn anything more than that considering the guy interviewing her was wearing a red leather jacket, a soft gray hoodie with a logo for some school or other, and blue jeans. Titus gestured towards an uncomfortable looking office chair that looked to have been grabbed out of a fire sale when she continued to stand. “Sit, you’re making my legs hurt just looking at you.” The man looked away to rifle through his stacks of papers on the desk and missed the look that Crowe gave to the chair before she sat down.

“So, Crowe Altius huh? Done any journalism before? Reporting for the school paper? Majoring?”

Crowe blinked at the sudden line of questioning. The position hadn’t mentioned a need for a journalism degree. “Yes sir, and, to be honest, no? I’m an engineering major, sir, I think if you look at all my work experience it’s working at the local mechanics, an electronics store, and tutoring high school kids on math.”

Titus paused in the middle of pulling out some papers and gave Crowe a tired look. “Enough with the sir, I don’t take it from my own guys, even though heavens knows they love calling me that for some reason.” He gently pulled the papers he had out of the pile and Crowe was impressed it didn’t seen the entire stack careening over the side of the table. There was a grunt as he looked down at the paper in front of him, her resume, she guessed. “Yep, I can see that here.” He slid two papers across to Crowe and handed her a pen. “And don’t worry about the journalism thing. I ask that of everyone just in case we get someone whose actually done this before to show everyone else the ropes, but most guys here haven’t done this before.” He frowned to himself as Crowe looked at the papers with one raised eyebrow before filling them out. “I think the best we have on staff is one girl who wrote for her school paper back in elementary school, two people who interviewed for an article in their middle school paper, and a small handful of people who worked on their high school year book.”

“That’s not bad considering the reporting for the podcast seems pretty professional.” She handed the pen and the filled out papers back to Titus, and tried to muse over how one was an application form and another seemed to be a waiver, so she wouldn’t sue the crap out of the team if she got shot while out in Leide or something.

“Eh, it was pretty bad back in the early days, but we picked up on things as we went.” The man scanned oner the papers she filled out. “Anyway, you’re in good hands. We’ve gotten the ‘teach the newbie to sound like they’ve actually done this shit before’ process down to the point we could do it naked, bound-up, and freezing our butts off in the sea during winter by now.”

She chuckled at the mental picture Titus painted. “That sounds awfully specific si- um, Titus.” Titus gave her an approving look when she caught herself in time. “Should I be worried?

“You think I’m going to make the newbie teach other newbies? No, worry about it after a year.” He typed something in the laptop, looked to his stack of papers, and pulled out a few more things near the top of two separate stacks. “Oh, yeah, why did this position appeal to you? For as close as Leide is to Insomnia, most people don’t like setting out there. Too hot or something.”

Crowe stared at Titus before leaning back in her chair and grinning. “Oh, I’m from Leide. Small town a day and a half to the west, near absolutely nothing notable. Came here when the Nifs started bombing the crap out of it, but I was wondering if the place still stood.” She shrugged. “Haven’t heard any reports to the contrary, but I figured I might as well check if you’re low on people headed to Leide. Don’t think you sent any people out that ways yet.”

“A good a reason as any,” Titus declared before he handed her a contract. “Anyway, I hope you didn’t quit your day job because the pay isn’t there and our hours are shitty, you’re still going to need that-“ He glanced over at the resume he still had in front of her. “-electronics store position. Astrals, I feel bad for you. You probably deal with so many idiots there.” Crowe gave a delighted laugh because he didn’t even know the worst of it. “Initial here, here-“ He flipped the page, “-here, here, and here. Sign and date at the bottom and you’re good to go.”

“That’s it?”

Titus smirked and nodded as she began to initial in the places marked, skimming over what thepage said. “Couldn’t find anyone else willing to head there and yours is a good a reason as anyone else. Welcome aboard, Crowe Altius.” He took a drink of whatever was in his mug and made a disgusted noise. “We get paid out of the generosity of Insomnians’ hearts, which is to say a couple of crowns here and there and just enough to cover renting a place and hosting, so honestly as long as you’re willing to accept that, I don’t see any reason why not to have you on.”

She snorted. “If that was all it took Titus, you might as well put a page up for unpaid volunteers to head out there. I bet there’s _loads_ of people willing to head out to the walls to see what it’s like.” 

She managed to get her boss to crack up the first day on the job. All told, she had a feeling it was going to turn out pretty well.

…

Nyx Ulric, star reporter that reported almost exclusively for the Galahd section, was the one to later point out that it was impossible to find someone willing to head out past the walls of Insomnia. Even the refugees preferred to stay put. “They probably still remember getting their villages bombed and imperial soldiers marching in them and their family,” he said when they were getting coffee in what passed for a break room. “All that trauma, you know? Don’t blame them, they deserve to be somewhere safe.” He took a sip of his coffee and groaned, his hands reaching around the mug. “Kinda takes someone with the right combination of guts, determination to see what’s going on out their for themselves, and no small about of sheer insanity to be willing to head out there to be able to do it.”

“Like us?” Nyx nodded as she looked into her mug of coffee. She breathed out slowly. “Well, someone’s got to do it. Titus is lucky to find us crazy group of kids isn’t he?”

“That’s the spirit.” Nyx reached out to ruffle her hair and she slapped his hands away. He chuckled before he left the break room leaving her to her thoughts and plans. She finally took a sip of her coffee when it had cooled, and she walked out of the room. Crowe would be heading out for Leide in a few hours, after all, might as well make good use of what time she had left for some last minute planning.


End file.
